Heart of an Avatar
by Belle Mortre
Summary: The tale of Roku’s first and only love, enduring through time and space.
1. Chapter 1

In the spring of his youth, Roku mastered firebending. Then, at sixteen, he met the exquisite beauty Mai Xi. Theirs was a love that promised to last forever, but as history has proven, every great romance must fight its way through the fires of hell before it may rejoice amongst the angels.

They kept their tryst a secret as long as they could, knowing full well that Mai Xi's father and brothers would be opposed to their only female being involved with a firebending monk. She came from a long line of Fire Nation gentry, destined to marry well and continue the ancient line of noble women. However, the lovers could only go undetected for so long and on the same night that Roku and Mai Xi had planned to elope and Mai's many brothers were chasing after them in the night, the pair had sought refuge in a small wayside inn, where they had run into a very strange group of people.

Monks from the senior Fire Nation temple had been on their way to Roku and Mai's home city of Mawan, seeking out the firebending man himself. The group of clerics took the young lovers into their quarters at the inn and told them of a magnificent occurrence: the Avatar spirit had been reincarnated in Roku.

At first neither man nor woman wanted to believe, but the evidence was too overwhelming to support anything but the truth. The monks who had raised Roku had performed several secret tests in his childhood and when the results had proved conclusive, they had sent word to the senior temple, who had waited until the apex of Roku's sixteenth year before seeking him out.

There was no way to deny it. He was the avatar.

Roku knew, though it killed him to admit it, that his newly accepted destiny was not safe to include his beloved at the moment. They would have to give each other up until Roku had mastered the four elements and found his place in the world. Mai Xi sobbed and cried and clung to Roku. He stroked her hair, whispering tenderly to her as he had so many times before after they had made love, only this time they were words of parting devotion, promises that as soon as he was able, he would return to her.

That night Roku slipped out through the back garden of the inn with the monks who had come to claim him, listening intently for the telltale sounds of Mai's brothers approaching on horses. She stood in there front door of the public house with tears streaming from her eyes as her brothers had halted in front of her and screamed for her to tell them where the rogue Roku was. But she wouldn't say. She never would.

And knowing that for the moment he was safe, Roku moved off into the night with a heavy heart and a longing simply to return to the arms of his beloved lady.


	2. Chapter 2

Several seasons had past. Roku had buried himself first in mastering earthbending. He traveled into the very heart of the Earth Nation to study the powerful art. He immersed himself in mastering the different techniques, staying for a few months in one town, then moving on to another in search of new skills.

At the age of twenty Roku, now a master of both fire and earth, moved on to the Northern Water Tribe. Here he met three different masters of that exquisite element, each of whom imparted their vast knowledge to the Avatar

Everywhere Roku went he met women. Old and young, married and single, peasant and gentry. Everyone wanted to meet the Avatar. But no matter how many beautiful young ladies were trotted before him, Roku thought only of his beloved Mai and the day when he could return to her.

He thought of her constantly. Memories of her smile, the sweet, milky scent of her skin kept him warm at night. When the road seemed to stretch on forever with no end in sight, he thought of Mai's lyrical voice and the way she looked when she sat reading in her father's library.

But as often as he had these wonderful thoughts, he also dwelled on the interminable passage of time and space that kept them apart. By the time he left the Water Nation, nine years had past since last he had seen Mai Xi's sweet face. In all that time anything could have happened. She could have been sent to a convent, or to live with distant relatives (as her father used to threaten if she didn't obey him) or, worst of all, she might have been married off.

These disturbing thoughts were with Roku all the way into the Air Nation. He was immediately embraced by the Air Nomads and their bending masters, who vied to have the honor of teaching the Avatar. In this way three more years past.

Finally, Roku's journey of mental and spiritual enlightenment was over. Twelve long years had gone by and he was now a man of twenty-eight, and he was ready and able to return to fight for his love.

For the first time in twelve years, Roku turned toward the Fire Nation and began the long journey home.


End file.
